Effectiveness of piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite laminate in active damping for smart structures

This paper deals with the effect of ply orientation and control gain on tip transverse displacement of functionally graded beam layer for both active constrained layer damping (ACLD) and passive constrained layer damping (PCLD) system. The functionally graded beam is taken as host beam with a bonded viscoelastic layer in ACLD beam system. Piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite (PFRC) laminate is a constraining layer which acts as actuator through the velocity feedback control system. A finite element model has been developed to study actuation of the smart beam system. Fractional order derivative constitutive model is used for the viscoelastic constitutive equation. The control voltage required for ACLD treatment for various symmetric ply stacking sequences is highest in case of longitudinal orientation of fibers of PFRC laminate over other ply stacking sequences. Performance of symmetric and anti-symmetric ply laminates on damping characteristics has been investigated for smart beam system using time and frequency response plots. Symmetric and anti-symmetric ply laminates significantly reduce the amplitude of the vibration over the longitudinal orientation of fibers of PFRC laminate. The analysis reveals that the PFRC laminate can be used effectively for developing very light weight smart structures.